Ask Athena's Daughters: Strong Female Characters For Today's Readers discussion

Thank you awesome readers! The Athena's Daughters Kickstarter exceeded our wildest expectations, funding the original anthology--with 7 extra authors--the Apollo's Daughters companion anthology--with 2 extra authors--and Apollo's Daughters II next year!

Here's the place to talk about how it worked, what worked, and what to do next time!

I'm glad there's going to be another Athena anthology. I'm primarily a novelist but if I can whip up an appropriate piece of short fiction, you'll hear from me.

I definitely learned a lot… I've been keeping a running tally of notes that I need to form into a blog post (once my brain stops being mush from lack of sleep). The first thing I learned though was, have Gail in every Kickstarter EVER. YOU ARE A PROMOTION MACHINE! Thank you.

Betty wrote: "I'm glad there's going to be another Athena anthology. I'm primarily a novelist but if I can whip up an appropriate piece of short fiction, you'll hear from me." I really hope you do submit a story when we open up submissions.

Let us know when. 0:)

I love the idea of including Gail in all Promotions!

Okay, what worked: the concept was strong and, as far as I could see, got a lot of traction on a lot of sites. I saw Athena's Daughters first on io9 and reactions there were very positive, and the same can be said for most other sites where I saw it promoted. The fact that we smashed through every stretch goal is testament to how much the concept of Athena's (and Apollo's) Daughters resonated with readers all over the world, so massive kudos to the original team.

What didn't: the pledging structure when it came to add-ons for Apollo's Daughters, or upgrades to print editions. Perhaps I'm alone in this, but when I directed a number of friends to the Kickstarter they required guidance as to how much to pledge if they wanted ebooks/paperbacks of each title. I understood the structure, but I'm tech savvy. I feel that future Kickstarters need to have less text, more clarity.

Christopher wrote: "Okay, what worked: the concept was strong and, as far as I could see, got a lot of traction on a lot of sites. I saw Athena's Daughters first on io9 and reactions there were very positive, and the ..."

100% correct. The pledging structure on kickstarter is absolutely terrible/totally not intuitive. It's very frustrating.

As it happens, I've done a blog post on my lessons learned from the Athena's Daughters kickstarter:

http://www.ailionora.com/2014/01/21/a...

I saw that, Janine. Excellent breakdown!

Christopher wrote: "I saw that, Janine. Excellent breakdown!"

Thanks!